What if my tabs are written sideways, with attributes down the side?

That shape is read as records too. When a thing has around fifty attributes people stop keeping it as a row and turn it on its side, with the name in the top cell and the attributes running down the first column. An importer that only understands columns-are-fields produces nonsense from it.

What does the importer refuse to do?

A value whose unit contradicts its column stops the import rather than being converted: 2048Wh under a column headed Capacity (Wh) is read as 2048, but 61.9 kg under a column headed Weight (lbs) is refused. An ambiguous date such as 03/04/2026 is asked about rather than guessed. A refusal leaves the app exactly as it was.

How many worksheets does Google AppSheet import?

Google's AppSheet documentation states that up to five worksheets from a Google Sheet will be imported into an AppSheet database. Bionic Forms does not cap the number of tabs it reads.

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What happens to the other tabs in my spreadsheet?

Q: What happens to the other tabs in my spreadsheet?

Every tab is read. Tabs holding the same kind of record are merged into one collection rather than becoming separate ones. A tab of formulas and running totals is left alone rather than imported as records, and a summary line such as an Average row at the foot of a tab is not treated as a record.

Q: What happens when two tabs disagree about a column?

A column's type is decided by every tab that will share it, not by the first tab read. Where a column holds a number on one tab and prose on another it becomes text, because that is the only shape that holds both. Inferring a dropdown's options from one tab causes the next tab's own values to be refused as invalid.

Matt Bidwell · 31 August 2026 · 5 min read

Most importers take one tab. A spreadsheet that a business actually runs on is a book: a summary at the front, a page per thing, and a calculator somewhere near the back. This is what happens to each of them.

The sheet this was built against

Nine tabs. Not a made-up example — a real buyer's guide someone keeps by hand:

Tab	What it is	What happens to it
Overview	A table, 29 rows, 14 columns	Imported as records
Anker, Bluetti, Ecoflow, Jackery, Pecron, Point Zero, Renogy	Seven tabs, each one product written sideways — name across the top, ~50 attributes down the side	Read as records too, and merged into one collection: 30 products, 135 fields
Capability Calculator	Running totals and a `#DIV/0!`	Left alone

The seven brand tabs are the point. They are where the detail lives, and they are the reason "just import the first tab" is the wrong answer: the tabs are what make things related to one another.

Sideways tabs are records too

When a thing has fifty attributes, nobody keeps it as a row — you would be scrolling right forever. People turn it on its side: the name in the top cell, the attributes running down column A, the values in column B. Then they copy that block for the next product, or give it its own tab.

An importer that only knows "columns are fields, rows are records" sees that and produces two records with fifty columns of nonsense. Reading it correctly means noticing the shape first, and then noticing that seven tabs share it.

Tabs disagree, and the merge has to hold both

Nobody fills in seven tabs consistently. In this one:

One tab writes 1056 under "Capacity (Wh)". Another writes 2048Wh.
One writes 28 under "Weight (lbs)". Another writes 61.9 lbs.
"Tested - AC charge rate (w)" is 1800 on one tab and 1100/700 on another.

So a column's type has to be decided by every tab that will share it, not by the first one read. Where a column is a number on one tab and prose on another it becomes text, because that is the only shape that holds both. Getting this wrong is not a cosmetic problem: infer the options for a dropdown from one tab and the next tab's own values get refused as invalid.

Four things it refuses to guess

A calculator is not data. A tab of running totals holding a #DIV/0! is left alone. Importing a spreadsheet's arithmetic error into a database is worse than not importing it.
A summary line is not a record. "Average" at the foot of a tab does not become a product.
A unit that contradicts its column stops the import. 2048Wh under "Capacity (Wh)" is read as 2048, because the column declared the unit. 61.9 kg under "Weight (lbs)" is refused — storing 61.9 where you meant 136 is the kind of wrong you never see again.
An ambiguous date is a question, not a coin toss. 03/04/2026 stops and asks day-first or month-first.

And a refusal leaves your app exactly as it was — not half a collection with the fields added and the records missing.

What it does not do

It moves records. It does not convert an application. Formulas do not become live calculations; they arrive as the values they had. There is no scripting language here at all, so anything whose worth is its macros is a poor fit and a custom build will beat us — the whole automation catalogue is set out on the Access page. CSV import is one file at a time; the whole-book reading is the Google Sheets path, because a link can see the other tabs and an uploaded file cannot.

How this compares

Google's own AppSheet states the limit plainly in its documentation: "Up to five worksheets from the Google Sheet will be imported into the AppSheet database."¹ The sheet above has nine, and seven of them belong in one collection rather than seven.

That is a real difference and also a narrow one. AppSheet is a mature product with a mobile app, and we are not: Bionic Forms is pre-launch and, as of 12 September 2026, has had nine signups who are not us, one of whom imported their own records, nobody who has typed one by hand, nobody paying, and there is no iOS or Android app. If you want the honest version of where we are, it is on /access and in llms.txt.

1. Create, import, and copy databases, AppSheet Help, retrieved 31 August 2026.

Try it on your own book: share the sheet as "anyone with the link", create a free account, and click Start from a spreadsheet on the first screen. It reads every tab and imports the ones that hold records, stopping to ask only when a date could read either way. Or open a live database first — no signup, no email.

Rather not assemble it yourself? Tell us what your current system does and we will build a working version and show you. No fee and no card — what we build fits the free plan.